All change.....!

Anyone who has been following my blethering on the construction of the N10 0-6-2t recently will know the chassis has had two motors and that they have been in a couple of positions because I wasn't happy with either the look or the performance.  Well it has changed again. 

A glance at the pictures will show I have done what I didn't really want to do and put the Nigel Lawton motor in the bunker. Having done it I see it is not as obtrusive as I thought it might be. That's because the flywheel type of universal coupling I engineered in an earlier incarnation has been dispensed with in favour of a completely separate proper flywheel. The discarded flywheel coupling mentioned, the design of which I have used perfectly successfully before in tender engines, has been replaced with a piece of bicycle rubber valve tubing. The tubing is a nice interference fit over the 1.5mm diameter shaft on which the worm slides and although the motor shaft is only 0.8mm diameter Nigel Lawton sells the sleeves that increase this to 1.5mm so it's a doddle to do. This arrangement occupies much less space, is easier to engineer and is also one of the reasons I was able to 'go' with the bunker mounted motor. I have not yet fitted the resistor but for the purposes of testing, as long as I don't crank it up to anywhere near full speed or place it under load, I think I can get away with that.

As promised in a previous posting there is now a video of the chassis and the loco with its footplate and cab sides etc. running back and forth on Wansbeck Road. Trailing wheels are yet to be assembled and installed but at this stage I am almost satisfied with the running and it may very well improve with the extra two wheels picking up.
All in all, I'm quite impressed with these little Nigel Lawton motors.

Above - The chassis. A piece of double sided PCB provides the platform for the motor mount and as mentioned above there is no resistor yet.

Above - The loco so far. Note the low visual impact of the motor in the cab easily hidden by a driver.

Above - A little bit closer so you can see the front millimetre or so of the motor and the drive shaft.

Here is a link to the youtube video  N10 chassis in action
and for good measure you can follow this one to Nigel's website although I can't imagine many of you don't know of this. (usual disclaimer of only being a satisfied customer).  Nigel Lawton motors

Mick S

NEAG Meeting update

Today at Bournmoor a good number of group members brought along samples of the various projects they have been working on. It is always good to see that others (like me, see later) go home from the meetings and get cracking on some modelling. As the pictures show we had a number of things worth looking at.

I think it is fortunate Anthony Yeates now lives in the NEAG catchment area so we will get a regular chance to see how Invernuek is coming along. I love micro layouts like this and travelling as it does in a box file Anthony can almost bring it along at the drop of a hat. (of course you could live in London and be in our catchment area)

Next pictures show the work of Ian Lister whose scenic modelling skills we admired. This is the front and rear view of the fish market on his on his home layout. If you are able, zoom in on the individually made fish boxes on the platform in the upper view. There is much of interest here and Ian is going to write something for the 2mm Magazine on the construction of the fish boxes and his method of producing exceptionally realistic stonework.

There were a number of small projects produced from members pockets as they gathered around in small groups to pick each others brains and generally enjoy a free afternoon without the discipline of any specific topic. The 2mm Magazine will also benefit from the work of John Taylor who has been producing driving wheels in a different way to normal and Philip Stead (middle picture above) who is modelling the Redmire branch - well not all of it.....! Something for the new year.

One member, Graham Eason, is branching out into the world of retail. Graham will be trading as Vintage Transport in Miniature at Unit 5, Corner Emporium, The Mall, Middlebrough. 

Graham's website can be found at vintagetransportinminiature.co.uk 

Always one to support a new venture I must have been one of the first to purchase a railway item from him in the form of a Bachmann Farish Met Cam 101 DMU. The picture below the one of Graham DOING BUSINESS shows it at 10pm tonight sitting on Wansbeck Road already finescaled.........!

Last but by no means least here we have Yvonne and Audrey in the kitchen slurping away at some Bucks Fizz and then immediately below that is a view of what they served up. Thanks to the ladies, it didn't take long for us to polish most of it off....................

12 inches to the foot pies, pizzas, cake and sandwiches. Yummy.

See you all next year.

Mick S.

In the Distant for NEAG meeting 10th December

North East Area Group meeting information.

Saturday 10th December 2011
North East Group HQ, Bournmoor.
Time - Please Note 2.00pm – 5.00pm. (approx.)

Our next group meeting will be our last one before Christmas so as is normal around this time of the year there will be no specific topic for discussion/demonstration. So whatever you have been working on bring it along. Small locos, that latest wagon or coach even an embryonic layout....! Yes there is nothing ruled out, just bring it along and show everyone what you have been up to. In addition as you will all know at our December meeting the usual afternoon tea is supplemented by all sorts of Christmas’y things.

For my own part, if you have looked at the NEAG blog lately, you will see I have been building an LNER N10 0-6-2t. Well I have changed my tack with regard to the powering of the N10. I originally used a Nigel Lawton 8mm diameter midi motor which really is quite small. However this is a small tank loco and what I wanted to do was to be able to see right through an unobstructed cab with no bits of motor or other paraphernalia. Unfortunately in order to do this using the 8mm midi motor meant a little of the rear of the motor was visible just ahead of the tanks at the front of the loco. I lived with it for a while and then it got the better of me.

The net result can be seen in the latest pictures, gone is the copper tube boiler, which couldn't be re-used because part of it had to be cut away to let the bit of motor stick out, and gone is the brass 'container' it used to be mounted, it having been substituted for a smaller machined mounting. In comes a brass boiler, which I have to confess does look better and when the boiler is removed the diminutive Nigel Lawton 6mm diameter motor can be seen. You can see what I mean by reference to the first picture below. At the time of writing this I haven't had the thing running with its new motor but I will have tried it before Saturday's meeting, and yes, you've guessed it that's what I'm bringing along as a work in progress.

Oh yes.... almost forgot. The wheels old series 2 whitemetal centred driving wheels have been replaced with a set of my own manufacture. I know the crank boss is a little larger than it needs to be but..........

"it's my train set..........!"

See as many of you as possible on Saturday

Mick S

Video video video

Just a quick post here for viewers of the blog (before getting on to do a bit more work on the N8). I was sitting with Bob this evening and he has encouraged me to insert a link to the Wansbeck Road video expertly created by Ian Morgan at the Oxford Expo.

So, if you look to the right you will see it. I know it's a bit vain but I did have my arm twisted......!

Mick S

0-6-2t Progress report.

Alright, this is the little beastie that the chassis is going under. It is a London & North Eastern N10 0-6-2t. Yes I know there are no trailing wheels yet but the chassis that has been used was not designed for the N10 so the trailing wheels will........well - come along afterwards. After I figure out how to attach them so they can add to the current pick up.

The start point of this little loco is the N8/N9 etches which the late George Norton allowed me to shoot down to 2mm some years ago. With these 'aids to scratch building' etches the boiler and anything that might have come as a casting has to be scratch built, all the builder gets is whatever was produced in the flat. That said, it still speeds up the process of loco building.

I have already built the N8 0-6-2t which can be seen often scurrying about its duties on Wansbeck Road but this is just a project to see how the Nigel Lawton midi motor would fit. Up to now I'm really pleased with it. I can have complete daylight through the cab mounting it this way. The only drawback is a little of the motor will be able to be seen just ahead of the side tanks and slightly lower down than the boiler. I can live with that in the interests of having an empty cab...!

Anyway, here are the pictures. There is a little bit of a story relative to the smoke box (bottom picture). The etched front should be soldered to the boiler front with a little overhang to accommodate a smoke box wrapper but I decided to do it differently and machined a brass one which would be a good interference fit over the boiler. Consequently this front now fits inside the machined smoke box wrapper and needs to be filed a bit to get it to fit. As you can see on the front end on shot I over did it at top right of the boiler. It will fill with Milliput.....!

The gaps either side of the sandboxes in the shot above exist because I moved said splashers out to avoid any chance of a short circuit, something that needs to be watched when using 'shot down' etches from the larger scales. The boiler, which as you can probably see is just a bit of domestic copper pipe, isn't fixed at this stage that's why the gaps are not equal.

More anon..............

Mick S.

LNER/BR N10 0-6-2t

Something that has occupied a bit of time lately, when the opportunity presented itself that is, has been this Fence Houses Model Foundry generic 0-6-0 chassis. Designed for the 8ft - 8ft 6inch wheelbase tender engine I have done what I usually do and used it for something else....!

It now forms the 0-6 part of an 0-6-2t, eventually to become one of the N10 class of locomotives. It is currently 0-6 because I've not figured out how I'm going to fit the trailing wheels, plenty time for that...! The reason I started this was to see if I could get one of the Nigel Lawton midi motors into the space between the tanks, as opposed to being in the bunker which might be regarded as normal practice. No, I want to see a bit of daylight through the cab so the intention has been to feed the motor in from the opposite end.

Along the way I have developed a motor mount that retains the motor without the need for screws, brackets or glue of any sort. It is a piece of brass bar bored out to the precise diameter of the motor. A little time consuming in the making but I find machining metal in the lathe very therapeutic. The mount itself needs to be secured (in my case using solder) to the chassis of course but the motor is an interference fit inside the bore of the mount. This has the advantage that if I ever want to change the motor for any reason at all I can do so easily and the extra bonus is the weight of the brass mount aids adhesion. Not that I think there is any great need for loads and loads of weight in a 2mm loco, it's more a question of balancing the right amount of weight. This in conjunction with adequate current pick up and a free running chassis, which can easily be achieved by removing the motor as aforesaid, means reasonable running should be the result. Anyway, have look at the pictures and you will see where I am with it. It is necessary to make a sleeve for the 1mm motor shaft to ensure it will fit the 1.5mm bore of the worm but more of that anon.....! I will post more as the project progresses.

I have made a slight alteration to the 'Jones' chassis in that I have joined the cantilevered gearbox tower to the opposing frame with some double sided PCB to give extra rigidity. This is easily seen in the lower two shots.

Next time you might get a link to a video to show how it's running......

Mick S

NEAG Meeting update plus

The North East group's point building continued on Saturday 2nd July with those builders present making good progress.

Also during the course of the meeting there was a discussion on whether or not to adopt a mentoring system for some of the more protracted aspects of 2mm modelling. As this developed it became apparent there was also a need for a workshop on basic soldering techniques and so our next group meeting would probably feature something based around this topic. In addition two volunteers were enlisted to make a short video on this subject.

Sunday 3rd July saw members of the group assembled at the site of one of our local preserved railways, the Tanfield Railway. This is one of the oldest railways in the world and boasts the oldest railway bridge 'Causey Arch' built in 1725.

The small (30 seats) coach had been hired for our exclusive use for the duration of the day which meant that members could do a couple of trips then alight to visit the shed and other places of interest on the site before returning to the train for another blast up the line. Light refreshments were served up courtesy of Yvonne and Sue. Here are a couple of pictures showing us during the course of the day followed by a couple of links, one to youtube showing our train engine running round at East Tanfield (the diminutive tank reminds me of John Greenwood's Wenford Bridge) and the other is Tanfield Railway website which may be of interest.

Mick S

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaG4h2ND9JA

http://www.tanfieldrailway.co.uk/